Integrated circuitry is typically fabricated on and within semiconductor substrates, such as bulk monocrystalline silicon wafers. In the context of this document, the term “semiconductive substrate” is defined to mean any construction comprising semiconductive material, including, but not limited to, bulk semiconductive materials such as a semiconductive wafer (either alone or in assemblies comprising other materials thereon), and semiconductive material layers (either alone or in assemblies comprising other materials). The term “substrate” refers to any supporting structure including, but not limited to, the semiconductive substrates described above.
Electrical components fabricated on substrates, and particularly bulk semiconductor wafers, are isolated from adjacent devices by insulating materials, such as silicon dioxide. One isolation technique uses shallow trench isolation, whereby trenches are cut into a substrate and are subsequently filled with an insulating material, such as, for example, silicon dioxide. In the context of this document, “shallow” shall refer to a distance of no greater than about 1 micron from an outermost surface of a substrate material within which an isolation region is received.
A prior art method for forming a trench isolation region, such as a shallow trench isolation region, is described with reference to FIGS. 1–2. FIG. 1 illustrates a semiconductor wafer fragment 10 at a preliminary step of the prior art processing method. Wafer fragment 10 comprises a substrate 12, a pad oxide layer 14 over substrate 12, and a silicon nitride layer 16 over pad oxide layer 14. Substrate 12 can comprise, for example, a monocrystalline silicon wafer lightly doped with a p-type background dopant. Pad oxide layer 14 can comprise, for example, silicon dioxide.
Openings 22 extend through layers 14 and 16, and into substrate 12. Openings 22 can be formed by, for example, forming a patterned layer of photoresist over layers 14 and 16 to expose regions where openings 22 are to be formed and to cover other regions. The exposed regions can then be removed to form openings 22, and subsequently the photoresist can be stripped from over layers 14 and 16.
A first silicon dioxide layer 24 is formed within openings 22 to a thickness of, for example, about 100 Angstroms. First silicon dioxide layer 24 can be formed by, for example, heating substrate 12 in the presence of oxygen. A second silicon dioxide layer 26 is deposited within the openings by high density plasma deposition. In the context of this document, a high density plasma is a plasma having a density of greater than or equal to about 1010 ions/cm3.
FIG. 1 is a view of wafer fragment 10 as opening 22 is partially filled with the deposited silicon dioxide, and FIG. 2 is a view of the wafer fragment after the openings have been completely filled. As shown in FIG. 1, the deposited silicon dioxide undesirably forms cusps 28 at top portions of openings 22. Specifically, cusps 28 are formed over corners of silicon nitride layer 16 corresponding to steps in elevation. The cusp formation (also referred to as “bread-loafing”) interferes with subsequent deposition of silicon dioxide layer 26 as shown in FIG. 2. Specifically, the subsequently deposited silicon dioxide can fail to completely fill openings 22, resulting in the formation of voids 29, or “keyholes” within the deposited silicon dioxide layer 26.
After providing second silicon dioxide layer 26 within openings 22, the second silicon dioxide layer is planarized, preferably to a level slightly below an upper surface of nitride layer 16, to form silicon dioxide plugs within openings. The silicon dioxide plugs define trench isolation regions within substrate 12. Such trench isolation regions have voids 29 remaining within them. The voids define a space within the trench isolation regions having a different dielectric constant than the remainder of the trench isolation regions, and can undesirably allow current leakage through the trench isolation regions. Accordingly, it is desirable to develop methods of forming trench isolation regions wherein voids 29 are avoided.